Red in the Head
by CityOfFandom
Summary: Mariana was a Gliacon. Being a Gliacon meant ruthlessness and perfection, which was expected of her at a young age. She never could escape from the betrothal, her family. Now, she had a chance. The chance was to escape forever, to the radioactive land of Naercey. No one would care if she was missing, after all, she was Red in the head. (Trigger warning: Suicidal thoughts)
1. Part I: Mariana Gliacon

_"Somebody shine a light_

 _I'm frozen by the fear in me_

 _Somebody make me feel alive_

 _And shatter me"_

 _\- Shatter Me, Lindsey Stirling and Lzzy Hale_


	2. Chapter I: Don't You Shiver?

Mariana shivered. She was normally immune to the cold, but she couldn't tell the difference between her cold and her fear. Fear of what was yet to become of her. Fear of what would happen if they all knew the truth, knew that she was not a loyal Silver.

It _hurt_ to lie. It _hurt_ to lie to everyone.

Mariana hated lies. She hated the insincere ones. She hated the way everyone lied for their reputation, their supposed purity.

She had to lie, it was inevitable. She had to do it, to save her from possible execution. Heck, she had to watch her _thoughts_ as well around Whispers like the queen. That same queen who gave birth to the worst king they'd ever had, the dirty double-crosser himself, Maven Calore, King of Norta, Flame of the North.

It was cold outside, so cold even Mariana was shivering. Ironic, wasn't it, that their family was made up of Shivers that never seemed to fear the cold.

They feared, all right. They all feared the king. Except a stubborn few, and Mariana was one of them.

It was tonight, she decided, to venture off to the heavily radioactive land of Naercey, and end all the lies, all the facades that were loyal to the Silver elite. She had a death wish, she did. At least she'd die a less painful and humiliating death than the Bowl of Bones.

It was a stupid idea, but there was no time to think about it as she set off into the Red territory, into the underground tunnels that led to all sorts of places.

There was no going back, no plan B. She was going to end this torturous life of lying and betrayal. She would have peace.

" _Where are you going, Mari? Where do you go?_ " The nagging voices in her head chided her as she walked along the tunnel that led to certain death by radiation. " _This was a bad idea, you know? This was the worst idea you ever had. This was-_ "

"Shut up!" She yelled aloud to no one. "I don't _need_ your words. I'm going to die tonight, and you're dying with me! I can't stand living like this anymore, I can't stand living in fear! Just- _shut up_!"

"Well, what do we have here? Don't you know radiation means certain death?" a voice laughed, coming from the scaffolding of the tunnel, "and it seems like she's insane too!"

The words were sharp as knives, but the voice that said it was mocking, not a good sign.

She tried to stand tall, face the mysterious voice coming from above. "Then how are you here? Why are you alive?"

Silence. Mariana knew she had struck a weakness, from her previous experiences listening to the friendly debates in the court. She took control over her emotions, running to the end of the tunnel.

"Dammit. We're being found out." The voice muttered above her, but unbeknownst to whoever the voice belonged to, Mariana heard everything.

"Who's there?" Another voice asked, trembling slightly, maybe in fear. She recognized that fear. It was the same fear Reds had when they saw her passing by.

It was a Red.

What were Reds doing in these tunnels? The tunnels that led to certain death? Unless...

No. It _couldn't_ be. Reds were intimidated by Silvers, weren't they? Reds couldn't have lied. They were loyal to the Silvers, they were given job opportunities. Why?

They weren't loyal, as she wasn't.

They were the Scarlet Guard, and their leader was about to kill her.

"What on Earth is a Silver doing here?" A haughty voice asked rudely.

"A Silver?" The first voice, which Mariana finally recognized as the voice of Diana Farley, the leader of the Scarlet Guard interrogated. "How did whoever it is get through you? Why didn't you attack? Was it- oh, no. It's a _Gliacon_."

"I can hear you! Show yourselves!" Mariana gathered her last bit of bravery and shouted.

"Show ourselves? As you wish, _Your Silverness_. Let's grant her her wish, shan't we?"

The Scarlet Guard surrounded her from all directions, Farley in the lead. Soon enough, a knife was at her throat.

"Aren't you the one who tortured me?" Farley hissed, voice filled with hate and anger. Mariana was famed for looking strikingly like her aunt, only without the signs of age.

"I... I didn't-" she gasped as the knife edged closer to her throat, "I... would never harm..."

" _You would never harm?_ " Farley asked in disbelief, voice mocking and cruel. "You froze my blood, and now you say you would _never harm_?"

"It... wasn't me..." She gasped, and Farley released her and studied her carefully, knife in hand.

"You look just like her," she commented, sneering at the other girl's pathetic cowering, "but you say you aren't the Sentinel?"

"I'm not ma'am, she's just a relative of mine."

"Are you sure we can trust her, Mare?" Farley asks the figure in the red cloak next to her.

Mare. Mariana was sure she's heard the name somewhere, but she wasn't sure where.

"I think we shouldn't trust another Silver. Remember what happened with Mavey?" A deep voice, filled with an aristocratic tone reminded. She recognized the voice this time, it was the former prince, Tiberius Calore the seventh, also known as Cal.

Mariana never knew Cal, as she wasn't the poor girl, her elder sister, to prepare for Queenstrial. Neva was a skilled Shiver, and she could draw on the moisture in the air to make deadly spikes. She was the perfect Gliacon, unlike Mariana, the disappointment of the family, not disowned yet because of her resemblance to her aunt.

The figure in the cloak- Mare- removed their hood, and Mariana nearly gasped loudly from shock. It was Mareena Titanos, the Red Queen as the Silvers knew her.

 _The Little Lightning Girl._


	3. Chapter II: Wide Awake

_"The figure in the cloak- Mare- removed their hood, and Mariana nearly gasped loudly from shock. It was Mareena Titanos, the Red Queen as the Silvers knew her._

 _The Little Lightning Girl."_

Mariana was in shock. She was dreaming, wasn't she?

She wasn't. She was right in front of the infamous Red Queen, the "face of the Scarlet Guard".

At least her death wish came true. She would die at last, she would have an end to this torture.

Her body, however, had a mind of its own when she laughed. "If you don't like Silvers like me, kill me. It's just payback for what we've done to you, isn't it?"

Farley chuckled darkly, "the Silver has a death wish, doesn't she? Very well, we'll gladly grant your wish." The tip of her blade was directed at Mariana's heart, and was about to end her life, but Mare interrupted again.

"Farley, stop!"

"What? The little Silver has a death wish, and I'm granting it!"

"She might have information on how the Stilts are doing."

Dammit. Another chance wasted. Mariana was about to snatch the knife from Farley's hands and plunge it into her heart herself, but the blonde sheathed it into her belt before she could do a thing.

"You're right. Come along, little Silver, we're going to have to interrogate you."

"Do you have a name, little Silver?"

"Mariana." A whisper, drowned out by the thoughts of ramming her head against the wall until her white hair glowed silver, the color of her blood.

"Mariana? What a pretty name."

It wasn't. Mariana was the name of one of the rebel Reds her aunt had tortured and killed in cold blood, no pun intended. It was to show the strange loyalty she had towards rebellion during her childhood.

"What are you doing here?" A question, that Mariana precisely predicted for it to be present during the interrogation.

"I knew you'd ask this question. As you said, I had a death wish, to die from the 'high levels of radiation' here. Too bad it's nonexistent." Her voice rang out high and cold, no longer under her control.

"Why?" _In order to stop this torture._

"I'm not loyal. I don't like lying, it's torture for me. I hated it."

Farley laughed, high and cold. "Aren't we all? Look at us. Look at me. Are we loyal to the Silvers? Heck, no. We're the Scarlet Guard, and we sure aren't loyal."

"It's easy for you. What if you were _raised_ with these people?"

Silence. Mariana could hear Farley's calculated thinking, her planning on what her next question would be.

"It would be like rebelling against your parents. You hate them but a small part of you still remains loyal."

 _She understood._

"She seems innocent. Seems like she came here for death. Said she hated lying, but I don't know if that's all a lie."

Farley's voice. She never trusted her, didn't she? She didn't.

She did.

"Hey! Are you Mariana?" A new voice, other than Farley's whispered through the metal bars of her cell.

"Who's there?" She asked, feeling slightly lightheaded from the lack of food.

"My name's Kilorn, and I'm here under orders to give you food and water. To keep you alive, Farley said."

' _To keep you alive_ '. She was more than a hostage, she was a prisoner now. To obtain information from when she didn't have any.

No one would care if she was taken away. No one would notice the lack of her presence. She was the useless sibling, she was only the shadow of her sister, but they complimented each other. Her sister was there for her when no one was.

That was one thing that made her different from her ex-fiancé, Maven. He got his revenge, but Mariana never wanted any.

The interrogation resumed the next day at the same time, this time with Mare as the interrogator.

She had heard about Mare Barrow, the bloodthirsty vixen who tricked Cal into killing his own father. But the Mare in front of her was different. Less power, less strength- but Mariana knew she had a power that even the Silver elite feared. She could control electricity, even draw it from within her.

"Did you know about Maven?"

There it was. Of _course_ she had to be asked about the enemy, it was mandatory in every single interrogation that she was forced to witness her aunt carry out.

"Other than the fact that he's a backstabbing, lying bastard?" She laughed. _Why did I say that?_ She thought to herself.

To her surprise, the other girl laughed, "other than that. Farley's orders to get information."

"You were the poor girl who the Queen drew Maven out of the betrothal to marry, right?"

"I thought that I was the first. I didn't know he was your love."

"I used to love him. But now the truth is revealed, he's a backstabbing little bitch," she cracked a smile.

"Will the Silvers attack? When and how?"

"They don't know about this place. They still think it's radioactive."

"The Techies did a great job at this, didn't they?"

"They did," she paused, then proceeded on to the question, "how did you find us?"

"I was hoping, if I could die of radiation. I was _supposed_ to die this morning. I was _supposed to_."

It was this that led Mare to believe Mariana wasn't like any other Silver, with numerous facades which all proved to be fake, that she was truthful.

"If I trusted you and let you out, Farley would flip. Kilorn will provide you with food and drink each day, it's not as good as the Silver food, but it'll do."

"Thank you."

She was oddly striving to live now. Someone finally trusted her, at least they acted like they did. She had a purpose after all.

 _She had a purpose in life._


	4. Chapter III: Broken

_"She was oddly striving to live now. Someone finally trusted her, at least they acted like they did. She had a purpose after all._

 _She had a purpose in life."_

"Do you want a candy bar?" Cal asked, peering through the dark bars, "I sneaked one out from the canteen."

Mariana looked up. She never knew the former crown prince. The only time she'd talked to him was three years ago, when her family and Maven's approved of the betrothal.

 _She was devastated. How could her family have sold her out like that? How could they have been so cruel?_

 _"It sucks, doesn't it, being forced into things like this? I know how this feels. To think I have to choose a girl in Queenstrial! It's five years away, but... I'm a bundle of nerves. Sorry, am I rambling again?"_

 _She looked up, thoroughly puzzled at the crown prince talking to her for the first time. "No, not at all. You can talk, I won't murder you all of a sudden."_

 _"Strange how you Gliacons are famous for this stuff, right?"_

 _"Trust me, I think I'm the only sane one. They get it from my aunt's side. I'm expected to be like them! Hilarious!" She gave a small laugh, as the prince chuckled._

 _"You're funny for a Gliacon."_

 _"You're... rather less stuck up for a Calore."_

 _"What did you mean by that?"_

That was the first and last time she'd talked to Cal, and now she was going to be talking to him all the time. More bearable than Maven.

She smiled up at him and took his offer. "Thanks. Is the food good?"

"Trust me, it is. They're not going to poison you. The Vipers aren't here."

"Always one for a joke, Calore," she smirked slightly, also noting the giant coat Cal had on, "it must be freezing out there."

"Your doing?"

"Never!" she feigned hurt at his statement, earning a hearty laugh from the former prince. "Doth thou thinketh this as a gleek?" she mimicked the olden language she had read of in one of Julian's books in his library.

"Farley must be rubbing off on you. I've never seen such levels of sarcasticness from you."

"It's not 'sarcasticness', Tiberias," she paused to witness the reaction from Cal at his birth name, "the correct word is 'sarcasm', and you should've paid more attention in Protocol."

"I hate you."

"Don't love you either."

"You never did."

"I know."

"You never told me you were betrothed to Maven Calore before Mare!" Farley whisper-yelled, careful not to wake anyone.

"You never asked."

"Now's not the time to be a bitch! How?"

"Four years ago, when I was thirteen, I made the horrible mistake of showing my parents who I truly was. That was when I was... normal, you know? When I didn't have problems with my head. I had a whole lot of motivation, a whole lot of guts. See where that got me now?"

"What did you tell them? How was it so horrible? Tell me. I won't bite."

"They found out about my Red girlfriend."

"You had a Red girlfriend? How?" Farley had heard tales about how Reds were executed by the Gliacons themselves, and to think about the consequences... it was unbearable.

"You wanted to know how I got here? Easy. There are a few tunnels in the Silver grounds. The one I used to get here was in the kitchen. Through the freezer."

"How fitting. A freezer in a freezer." Farley remarked, smirking at the other girl.

"It's the tunnel that I used to sneak food to the Reds back then. The process was easy. Flick open the hatch, push the food over, jump in, close the hatch. I never got caught... until that time I did."

"What happened? Tell me."

"My aunt found me." With that, Farley grimaced at her unpleasant memories of the woman.

"What happened next?"

"She killed her, right in front of me." With that, she couldn't stop the flow of tears stinging her eyes. She bit her lip to stop the emotions she'd been holding down for so long, but it didn't work. All the breathing techniques she'd learnt in Protocol were deemed useless now.

"You loved her a lot."

"I was thirteen. My parents looked everywhere for me to prove my supposed 'heterosexuality' as they put it. For whatever twisted reason, the queen offered Maven. I was nearly a pawn in their game."

"Now you're reeled back into this."

"You could've let me..."

"I can't."

Mariana woke up the next morning filled with relief. Where was she? Was this where the dead went? Did she finally do it?

She realized not long after that she was a prisoner in Naercey, where she had planned to die.

 _At least I'm away from the Silvers,_ she thought in glee, _I'm finally free from the lies._

Indeed, she was free, but she somehow knew that the Silvers would be looking for her once they noticed her missing presence.

At that moment, they were already looking for her.

Reds were murdered ruthlessly during the search for Mariana, and the Silvers were getting close to risking a few Sentinels to look in Naercey.

Surprisingly, the Gliacon family was not participating in the search for their relative. They were actually glad the "little betrayal" was gone. For sure she wasn't alive, was she?

Neva was heartbroken. She had known her sister had issues, as their mother had put it, since she was born. Mariana was too sentimental, too compassionate about everything. It was something the Gliacons dreaded in their kin. She was lucky to be alive, after all her defiance, especially after the incident that nearly cost her her life.

She was going to try to lead the search, no matter what. Her family, her honors, nothing would stop her from finding her sister.

Even if it was to betray everyone.


End file.
